Feature of the Week

Highs, lows of early childhood development

It is said that a child who attends kindergarten does well in primary school and later stages of life. Despite being late in ensuring that all under-five children attend preschool, government and non-governmental organisations in Malawi are out to make that happen. But as BRIGHT MHANGO writes, there is still a long way to go.

Audridge Nyirenda is the head teacher of Chirambo Primary School in the heart of Traditional Authority Chikulamayembe’s domain, some 25-minute drive from Rumphi’s administrative centre.

Next to his school is a magnificent structure that is going to serve as a kindergarten, and Nyirenda doesn’t hide his admiration:

“Experience has shown that children who attend preschool perform better when they come to primary school. They grasp lessons better.”

Rumphi district social welfare officer Joshua Luhana agrees with Nyirenda. He says preschool can benefit Malawi more as the juniors can learn how to use toilets and other hygiene practices.

Luhana said preschool can also socialise children the right way which can make them go to primary school as better and disciplined scholars.

Realising this principle, there has been a buzz and hype in the last three or four years in Malawi regarding preschool. With those efforts, early childhood development (ECD), as it is called, is slowly going up the national agenda.

Thumbs up child minders

Minister of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Anita Kalinde, speaking in Lilongwe recently when she opened a conference of caregivers—the child minders in the various ECD centres—hailed the role of ECD programmes in national development.

“The ECD programme contributes significantly to the attainment of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) goal of reducing poverty and realising sustainable economic growth. It also has a direct bearing on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” said Kalinde.

Leading the ECD way in the NGO sector is ActionAid Malawi which officially launched the Early Childhood Development Programme on 8 May at Thundu, Ntchisi, in Traditional Authority Kasakula.

ActionAid country director Martha Khonje said investing in a child’s early years will help to promote the right to education for all children.

She said this is key in ending poverty, which is one of ActionAid’s major aims.

With funding from The Roger Federer Foundation to the tune of $7 million [K24 billion], ActionAid will in the next 10 years construct 80 model community-based child care centres across Malawi, train caregivers, reach out to parents and communities to “ensure the smooth transition of children from ECD centres to primary school.”

The child care centres are definitely working. Children as young as three can point out colours in rural Ntchisi and pupils around Bumba in Rumphi can make a basic prayer in English.

Further West in Bolero, Rumphi, a three-year-old pupil unpacked the alphabet effortlessly, a thing most Malawians expect a standard three pupil to ably do.

But with all the benefits and potential aside, efforts to reach these children with quality education are facing constraints.

Shoe string budget

Government appears unsure about the programme. The budgetary allocation to ECD interventions rose from K880 000 (about $2 200) in 2010 to a mere K110 million (about $275 000) in 2013.

The National Community Based Child Care Centre Inventory of 2008 reveals that out of the 1.1 million children who should be in preschool, only 38 percent are enrolled.

The inventory also points out that only a quarter of the caregivers in the centres have received the necessary training, a fact that worries Khonje.

“As a country, we need to think about how best we can train our caregivers and how we can creatively motivate them,” said Khonje.

Almost all of the country’s caregivers or child minders are volunteers. They cook porridge for the children, mind them from morning till lunch, teach them and help them in the toilet, all without pay.

As Khonje observed, their motivation is a big issue.

One such caregiver is Ndindase Chirambo, who works at Chirambo CBCC in Rumphi.

“As a child, I never had the chance to go to kindergarten and later in secondary school I saw how important preschool is and I do this just to give something to the community that I never had,” said Chirambo.

And like her colleagues at the conference of caregivers in Lilongwe, Chirambo called on government to consider drafting preschool child minders onto its payroll.

“We have to eat, dress and look good. We have farms to tend to and if we are to spend the rest of the day here, we need a little something to keep us going,” she said.

The ECD centres being built by Roger Federer via ActionAid are impressive structures replete with toys and outdoor playgrounds with multi-coloured see-saws.

But Federer is not Malawian and will only build 80 schools.

Looking to the future

Kalinde acknowledged that 80 percent of child care centres are dilapidated and not fit for children. Like the operational centre at Bolero, a hollow structure with no windows and waterproof roof, the floor is dusty and there are not enough mats for every child.

And with meagre budgetary allocations to the sector, it looks like it will be long before the 62 percent of under-fives that wallow in homes waiting for primary school are attended to, education-wise that is.

Even when every village has a centre, the children need to be fed. Most centres give maize paste porridge to the children and this is a good trap to educate children who flock to the centres for the porridge, among other things.

Currently, some centres are receiving flour and sugar from NGOs but this cannot go on forever and many centres will not be operational if all they rely on are donations.

Realising this, the child care centre at Chirambo in Rumphi has put in place excellent sustainability projects which acting village head Kawazamawe said would see the centre survive the test of time.

“Firstly, we own this building; we provided bricks, sand and labour. We have a programme whereby each village brings maize to the centre for the children’s porridge. We also have a feed mill whose proceeds come to this centre to buy sugar. We buy at least 20 packets of sugar per month.

“We love this project. Enrolment is now at 206 children. We have a communal garden where we all go and farm to produce food for the centre. We also have a house which we rent out and the K7 000 from there helps the centre,” said Kawazamawe

Maybe Kawazamawe and people in his area are the model others can emulate.

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